240 LECTURE IX. 



meters from the foramen magnum to tlie incisive alveoli^ and 

 200 millimeters in width at the level of the zygomatic arches, 

 and thus must have belonged to a very large animal. A larger 

 skull is said to be in the College of Schwytz. The well-pre- 

 served teeth rendered it easy to ascertain that the skull be- 

 longed to a brown bear. Significant is the circumstance, that 

 the locahty where this bear cave is situate is called upon 

 the maps ' Barentross/ from ' Troos/ alnus viridis, which tree 

 is abundant there, a circumstance which indicates a recent 

 habitation of the cave." Here, therefore, is an osseous deposit 

 of a comparatively recent date, at any rate much more so than 

 the deposits usually found in caves. 



Before proceeding to the age of these deposits, I must be 

 permitted to say a few words on the mode in which these caves 

 were filled up. The bones are generally those of beasts of 

 prey. In Europe, to which portion of the globe these remarks 

 apply, it is chiefly the bones of bears and of hygenas which 

 have been found. These two animals inhabit caves, and as is 

 proved by the cave in the Stoss, they may have been over- 

 whelmed by the falHng in of blocks of stone, and thus buried 

 in the clay. This could, however, have happened to but few 

 individuals, though several successive generations of such 

 animals may have inhabited the same cave ; but the circum- 

 stance that thousands of individuals are found buried together 

 in such caves, shows that other causes must have been at work. 

 There are proofs that some caves were inhabited by carnivora, 

 who introduced bones to feed their young, which was especially 

 done by the hygenas, whose coproiites contain undigested 

 bones. The bears, though they also inhabit caves, to which 

 they retire chiefly for hybernation, did not introduce bones. 

 Again, large collections of bones are found in cavities which 

 can only be reached by ladders, to which no Hving animals 

 could have had access. Hence but few caves are entirely filled 

 Tip with the bones of its former inhabitants, some remains must 

 therefore have been introduced by some other causes. 



Sick and dying animals usually retire to caves and fissures, 

 to die or to recover. Many bones have been found showing 

 that the animals had been wounded or that the bones were 



